This document summarizes a presentation about using the CasperJS testing framework to test dynamic web applications built with Meteor. It discusses the challenges of testing dynamic apps, provides an overview of CasperJS and how it can be used to automate browser tasks and application testing. It also includes examples of using CasperJS to test simple Todo and party apps created with Meteor.

1. TESTING METEOR USING
CASPER.JS
A presentation by Stephan Hochhaus ( @yauh ) on Dec, 16th 2013.

3. PUT YOUR APP TO THE TEST
Functional tests focus on user experience and ensure features
are working as expected (i.e. find bugs). Also they reveal
problems with your requirements.

5. CHALLENGES IN TESTING DYNAMIC WEB
APPS
DOM is not ready on initial load
site elements are constantly changing
elements without proper IDs are hard to address and make
testing less robust
timing of steps is critical to successful testing

7. WHAT IS IT?
Casper is both a testing & navigation framework
It is based on PhantomJS
You can easily create Jenkins Compatible JUnit XML

8. CASPER CAN BE USED TO
1. automate your browser to scrape stuff
2. test sites and apps (which is what we're talking about here)

9. (It just does, but that's not the topic of this presentation.)

11. HOW TO USE CASPER
Grab PhantomJS
Grab Casper version 1.1 (devel)
Find a running Meteor app
Write some tests

12. IF YOU ARE ON OS X
INSTALL CASPERJS + PHANTOMJS USING HOMEBREW
$ brew install casperjs --devel
RUNNING A TEST
$ casperjs test mytest.js

13. REMEMBER THESE?
In order to have a consistent basis for testing we'll make use of
some example apps provided by Meteor:
Todos
Parties

14. CHEAT SHEETS
Some ressources to help you understand
Infos about XPath

16. A CASPER SKELETON
var meteorUrl = 'http://localhost:3000/';
// Start your testing
casper.start(meteorUrl, function() {
this.test.assertTitle('Todos', 'App title is as expected');
this.test.comment('Taking a picture to document our success');
this.capture('captures/a-website.png');
casper.then(function() {
// do something else
});
});
// don't forget to run your tests
casper.run();

17. LOOK AT OUR CAPTURE

18. HANDS ON
LET'S TEST THE EXAMPLES
Gentle introduction - simpletest.js
Basic functionality - todotest.js
Logging in and setting up a party - partiestest.js

20. CONSIDER YOUR CHOICES
Dalek.js 0.0.8
Zombie.js 2.0.0-alpha24
Selenium 2.4.0
Laika 0.3.1
Mocha 1.15.1
RTD - The Meteor Test Runner

22. THANK YOU!
I blog at yauh.de , tweet as @yauh , and +1 as StephanHochhaus .
Feel free to fork this .